Schools financial value standard assurance statement guidance
Updated 17 November 2023
Applies to England
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-financial-value-standard-sfvs/schools-financial-value-standard-assurance-statement-guidance
Introduction
Local authorities have continuing responsibility for financial regularity in the schools that they maintain. The chief financial officer (CFO) of the local authority is responsible for making the necessary arrangements for local financial and management controls, under section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972.
The CFO is required to submit a signed assurance statement to the department each year confirming that they have in place a system of audit for schools that gives them adequate assurance over their standards of financial management and the regularity and propriety of their spending.
The statement also provides a breakdown of the numbers and types of schools within the local authority that have submitted the SFVS return.
The deadline for submitting the assurance statement for 2022 to 2023 is 31 May 2023.
Completing the assurance statement
A blank copy of the assurance statement has been uploaded to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) document exchange.
You can find information about how to access and use the ESFA document exchange in the user guide.
Download the Excel file labelled ‘SFVS assurance statement’.
The assurance statement contains 6 tables:
1. Total number of eligible schools in the local authority
This is the number of schools maintained by the authority during the 2022 to 2023 financial year, broken down by school type.
2. Number of eligible schools that completed the SFVS
This is the number of eligible schools that have submitted an SFVS return to the authority at the time of completing the assurance statement.
3. Number of eligible schools that did not complete the SFVS (non-compliant, without exemptions)
This is the number of eligible schools that have not submitted an SFVS return to the authority at the time of completing the assurance statement and are not covered by one of the exemptions listed below. Authorities should continue to follow up with these schools and update the department as additional returns are received.
4. Number of eligible schools that did not complete the SFVS (with exemptions - breakdown as outlined below)
This is the number of eligible schools that have not submitted an SFVS return to the authority for one of the following reasons:
a. School has opened in this financial year
b. School has closed in this financial year
c. School suffered fire/flood/natural disaster in this financial year
d. School has been issued with an academy order in this financial year. If the school has not converted by the end of the next financial year, it becomes eligible to complete the SFVS again
e. Schools have merged in this financial year or entered into a hard federation with a new governing body
f. Financial delegation has been withdrawn/suspended in this financial year
g. Governing body has been suspended and so cannot complete the SFVS in this financial year
5. List of reasons for non-completion of SFVS
This table gives a breakdown of the numbers of exempt schools by reason for the exemption.
6. Related party transactions (RPTs)
a. Number of RPTs submitted by schools in the authority which were of a value greater than £20,000
b. Is the authority satisfied with the financial controls in place in relation to RPTs in all its schools?
In the further comments section, the local authority should provide any additional information in relation to its answers above.
The completed statement should be signed by the local authority’s CFO or someone authorised to sign on their behalf.
Submitting the assurance statement
You should submit either:
An electronically signed Excel version of the assurance statement (recommended)
or
A signed scan of the assurance statement and an unsigned Excel version
The statement should be uploaded to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) document exchange.
To upload your file, navigate to the ‘Send a new document’ folder and select the document type ‘SFVS assurance statement’ and then follow the instructions.
Specimen signatures
The signature on the statement will be checked against our records of specimen signatures for the local authority. If the person signing the statement has not previously supplied a specimen signature to ESFA, they should complete the specimen signature template and return it to LA.Assurance@education.gov.uk.
Additional information
If you have any questions about this return, or the process, please contact us at LA.Assurance@education.gov.uk